Background:
We live in a 4 level split level. The space on the 4th (lowest) level is used for playing. As many of you have experienced, the home theater beast has awaken inside of me, and sequestered my existence. I. Must. Build.

Home theaters cost money. Loads of it. I must complete mine in phases since I only have 1 load. As soon as more makes itself available to me through some miracle or time, I will move on. Phase one will get me up and running and set the infrastructure for greater things. Phases 2+ will add style, a kitchenette, more acoustic treatments, more architectural pzazz.

I am an IT guy, so much of this DIY stuff will be a learning process for me. At least I'm good with the AV and technical stuff.

REQS for Phase 1:
1. Awesome movie viewing (2D only for now, please thx).
2. For now, kids will be play in the area, so it must be somewhat protected against 3yo and 6 yo boys.
3. Looks good, clean!
5. Sounds good! I don't care about sound proofing, but I want to have good enough speakers so I can achieve optimum sound in the future with acoustical treatments.
4. Ready for future phases
5. Cost less than $8,000 (LOL I hit that mark a long time ago, guessing I'm up to around 12k at this point - 12/5/2012)

Here're the BEFORE shots!

The room is 90" tall concrete to joists. The beam you see running across the middle carries the support beam and HVAC.

Projector
I'm buying an RS45 for 2D image quality and CIH comparability. I've done ridiculous amounts of research for a year coming to this choice. I'm very excited! I will also be mounting this from the ceiling and putting some sort of cage around it. Either I will go with nice wood trim, or I was thinking maybe a metal cage like you sometimes see on speaker grills custom built. I do this because of the boys.

Screen
Seymour AT 11' foot wide screen. I may scale that down to 10' if it's not bright enough. We'll see. I will be building the frame myself. I will also build the masks myself using wood, felt, GOM and magnets. I also will make a curtain to help protect the screen from flying objects.

Just popping in to say hi and good luck! I'm in the middle of a very DIY theater myself. I'm not using anything special for surrounds either, I was told "nothing too special" works well, especially on a budget

Also, I don't think 11' will be too close. I'll have to re-measure my distance, but my front row is no more than 10' away from a ~8' screen width, looked like the perfect distance when I did a mock up. I'll note my exact dimensions tomorrow if I remember.

Thanks iced! I used to be a huge flight sim nerd and had a Dell PJ and a bed sheet setup. I then took a seat out a cavalier and mounted my yoke and pedals to a wood frame. All kind of similar to your racing setup, except yours is cool.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Digital_Chris

Just popping in to say hi and good luck! I'm in the middle of a very DIY theater myself. I'm not using anything special for surrounds either, I was told "nothing too special" works well, especially on a budget

Also, I don't think 11' will be too close. I'll have to re-measure my distance, but my front row is no more than 10' away from a ~8' screen width, looked like the perfect distance when I did a mock up. I'll note my exact dimensions tomorrow if I remember.

Ah yes, the ol' AE4000. How many hours did I spend researching THAT unit! I suppose I should probably swap out the Panny layer in photoshop with a JVC.

As to the distance, I love the fact that I can just play with it by moving the couch back and forth. No commitment! I tend to enjoy sitting a little closer then normal for extra immersion, but we'll see.

I'm glad to hear you got that advice on the surrounds. Honestly, I am OK with having lower end gear on the surrounds. I really just need my front firing stuff to be better grade. I will have the infrastructure built to upgrade them later anyway.

Looks like a great project, I see in your renders that you stayed with white walls and ceiling. That is something to think about. It does make a difference in image quality.

I can't believe I left that out! DuH! Anyway, my wife and I came to a compromise about the color. I wanted it dark, and she light. We're going with medium to dark non-reflective. I just hadn't yet colored the walls in my renders.

I also should mention that I hate the color of the carpet I have. We will be replacing that as well, but not until after this phase is complete. So I will be painting the walls a temporary color to match the carpet. Then when we get new carpet, I'll paint again.

Thanks for the advice! I had actually been looking for this info about 2 months ago but never asked right out. Those are far and away outside of the price range for now. But I will refer back when I'm ready to upgrade.

With an opening graphic like that, I really hope you add some companion cubes to the room, maybe a turret or 2...

Hahaha, I was thinking the same thing! BRING ON LEVEL 4! I love it!

Your plan looks pretty sweet.

I'm planning for a 10' wide 2.35 Seymour acoustically transparent screen also. I'm going to have to look into the JVC you mentioned since it seems like we have similar goals. I don't care that much about 3D, I'm doing CIH, etc. I had been thinking seriously about the AE4000u but it's getting a little old now...

Are you planning to use an anamorphic lens or will you be doing zooming?

With an opening graphic like that, I really hope you add some companion cubes to the room, maybe a turret or 2...

Subscribed

That thought has more than crossed my mind. Maybe, in a later phase, the projector is Wheatley and the accoustic panels are the testing panels (that move in the game, if you've played Portal 2). There are many options, especially with some cool carpet, color, and lighting choices.

Projector in disguise?

I will do my best to keep this in mind. I should probably get my wife to play Portal now, so when I bring it up a later the nostalgia of it will win her over.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdanforth

Hahaha, I was thinking the same thing! BRING ON LEVEL 4! I love it!

Your plan looks pretty sweet.

I'm planning for a 10' wide 2.35 Seymour acoustically transparent screen also. I'm going to have to look into the JVC you mentioned since it seems like we have similar goals. I don't care that much about 3D, I'm doing CIH, etc. I had been thinking seriously about the AE4000u but it's getting a little old now...

Are you planning to use an anamorphic lens or will you be doing zooming?

What's your throw distance?

Subscribed! Looks like fun!

It's funny how quickly current models become "old" as soon a new line rolls out. I saw one an AE4000 for about $1450 used and was tempted, but nooooooo. I have to have the latest and greatest.

I'm not even buying the 3D emitter/glasses until later. My throw is flexible. I will go for the closest throw for my width, which will be about 15'. The projector will be about 12 down from the ceiling to clear that large soffit running down the middle of the room. So, the bottom of it will be about 6' 2" off of the floor.

I will also be building some sort of structure around it to protect A) my head B) the PJ from the kids! (still working on this design)

Oh, and I'm doing the zoom method for now. If I feel the added brightness from an anamorphic lens is worth the cost, I'll upgrade. The RS45 has vertical stretching, so it's "ready" for a lens...

I'm not exactly sure what to do about this water main. The current plan is to leave it as is, build my stage around it, and try to get the sheet rocking behind and over it. I'm not quite yet sure how that's going to work out.

Looks like a good plan, I'll be following along. I made some similar choices, so I like your taste.

In particular:
- CHT speakers all around: 6 PRO-10s, 1 SHO-10 for center (per Craig's recommendation - works great). They were returns, so I got them for $200 each. Before that deal came around, I was considering using PRO-10s or SHO-10s for LCR, and Hsu in walls for surrounds - I think they'd be a good match, and are pretty cheap.
- Seymour A/V AT screen - 136" wide, custom 2.125 aspect ratio; Jamestown frame.
- my first row seating is at 12'
- JVC RS-20 projector (purchased used)

I'd say you want to retain easy access to the water valves - it may even be required by code. Not sure if that's part of what you're imagining.

Definitely will keep it accessible. It will be behind my screen wall with removable panels and screen.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brad Horstkotte

Looks like a good plan, I'll be following along. I made some similar choices, so I like your taste.

In particular:
- CHT speakers all around: 6 PRO-10s, 1 SHO-10 for center (per Craig's recommendation - works great). They were returns, so I got them for $200 each. Before that deal came around, I was considering using PRO-10s or SHO-10s for LCR, and Hsu in walls for surrounds - I think they'd be a good match, and are pretty cheap.
- Seymour A/V AT screen - 136" wide, custom 2.125 aspect ratio; Jamestown frame.
- my first row seating is at 12'
- JVC RS-20 projector (purchased used)

Brad, as a former lurker, I followed your thread very closely, especially since you had those CHT speakers. Your room is amazing! I'm encouraged to see you using that wide of a screen with an RS20. I had my doubts about the RS45 being able to light it up well enough on my screen, which is 11' (132") wide.

I had a conversation with the wifey and we (she) decided to up the design of the room a bit.

Here's a mockup:

We are going to be adding a star ceiling to the room. I'm more inclined to do a painted star ceiling rather than the fiber optic, but I'm still deciding if that's a valid option for us.

My concern with a painted ceiling is that I won't have enough evenly distributed light on the starred surface to charge it up properly. If you take a look at the design I've mocked up below, you'll see that I've added a two tier soffit around the room. There will be a tray for rope lights, but it will only be a few inches lower than the highest part of the ceiling.

UPDATE
I've decided to build the room like in the picture above. I will hold off on painting the stars on the ceiling for now. The reason being I am not putting the carpet in during this phase. I will take that dark blue rectangle inset in the ceiling and paint it to match the future color of the carpet. I don't want to have to redo the stars.

I like that design also. Would like to see the soffits a darker color, so that they do not reflect so much light back onto the screen. You will be surprised at how much difference that it makes. I talked to Brad about those CHT speakers back when he was doing his theater. At that time I was MJG100. I like compression driver speakers for HT use. They have the ability to hit the peaks cleanly. Also if you can, wire so that you can place subs around the room. Your size room should have multiple subs. They are an easy add later on. Keep up the good work and ask plenty of questions. There are a lot of guys here with experience building nice HT's. My room is a no thrills, black hole, but with lots of performance, especially on the audio end.

I like that design also. Would like to see the soffits a darker color, so that they do not reflect so much light back onto the screen. You will be surprised at how much difference that it makes. I talked to Brad about those CHT speakers back when he was doing his theater. At that time I was MJG100. I like compression driver speakers for HT use. They have the ability to hit the peaks cleanly. Also if you can, wire so that you can place subs around the room. Your size room should have multiple subs. They are an easy add later on. Keep up the good work and ask plenty of questions. There are a lot of guys here with experience building nice HT's. My room is a no thrills, black hole, but with lots of performance, especially on the audio end.

Added
Subscribed

I will probably take your advice and find a way to get the soffits, or at least the front soffits, painted black. I think this is especially important considering that I will be running my 2.35 images using the zoomed function, and this may end up running into the soffit.

I've been using the CHT SHO-10's for a couple months now for non-theater listening; tv and some music. My impression is that they are super clean and very consistent. I'm very excited to try these out in an actual surround sound environment in my theater. I don't haven't had the best demo so far, and yet, I'm already very happy with them.

I'd love more subs, someday perhaps. I will wire the front with two lines and one in the back.

I will post pictures next week, but I wanted to do a quick update as long as I had already bumped the thread.

1. Started wiring. I should be done next week.

2. Someone donated a nice oak shelf/cabinet. It's 9 feet tall and about 4 feet wide. I will be re-purposing this unit to fit into my closet as a built-in. It will be my media rack. I started rebuilding the closet wall to fit my needs last night. Pictures coming later.

3. I went ahead and bought the nicer 6.5inch in-wall speakers for my surrounds from monoprice. I know they're not ideal, but for $130 or so, I've got "good enough for now" speakers.

4. My mitre saw broke! I was going to make some soffits to test how they looked in the room, but I'll have to wait. I need to finish the wiring and closet first anyway. After that, I'll have to either buy a new one or *gulp* borrow one. Yuck either way.

5. I bought a blu-ray 3D burner drive and Happauge dual tuner card for my HTPC. I'll build that this weekend. I need to start reconfiguring my home computer for the HT application. I think I will backup all of stuff to bluray and rebuild; just to have a clean slate.

I've been working after the kids go to bed, usually from about 9pm to around 11pm or sometimes later. It's tough, but when I have an awesome home theater as a carrot on a stick, I seem to find a way to get up and get going. I hope I can keep it up!

I started cabling. I ran a few lines back into my closet and realized I should probably do some of the messy closet demolition before I got any further.

Here is my closet before and after:

Here are the top and bottom parts of the shelves I inherited:

My plan for these shelves:
-Take off the trim
-Saw 3" off of the back of the bottom unit fit into the space
-Remove top plate on top half, saw off 8" from the height of the unit, replace plate
-Sand, stain, and finish the wood in the color I want
-Install into 76h" x 42w" x 26d cavity
-Attach trim

We are going to be adding a star ceiling to the room. I'm more inclined to do a painted star ceiling rather than the fiber optic, but I'm still deciding if that's a valid option for us.

My concern with a painted ceiling is that I won't have enough evenly distributed light on the starred surface to charge it up properly. If you take a look at the design I've mocked up below, you'll see that I've added a two tier soffit around the room. There will be a tray for rope lights, but it will only be a few inches lower than the highest part of the ceiling.
)

I debated the painted star ceiling also. I think they look more realistic than the fiber and almost went that route. Painted was also half the cost (to hire it done) than to do the fiber optic ceiling myself (tons of labor). In the end it came down to wanting to be able to control the light, and having animated shooting stars and such. I wanted to be able to dim or turn off the stars through the grafik eye. Painted seems like a great option and I think we are going to start seeing lots more of them here.

Chiming in with my first post. I am also an IT guy, who lives in a 4 level split, and just started my HT journey. I have been thinking of a name, and never even thought about the fact that we call ours the 4th floor all the time ! Too funny. Looking good so far. Mine is only partially finished, so I have quite a bit of framing to do.